


Doomed to Repeat

by TriplePirouette



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Belle and Henry Friendship, Gen, Post mid-season 4 finale, angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 01:44:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2833580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriplePirouette/pseuds/TriplePirouette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Her own thoughts so short a time ago had been so dark, darker than they’d ever been, but this boy, not yet a man, stood on the precipice with her, looking into a void that had no return.” Henry checks on his Grandma after the fourth season mid-season finale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doomed to Repeat

**Author's Note:**

> This idea hit me right between the eyes while I was writing WonderTwinC’s RSS “Shattered Fragments.” I held back and decided to make it a stand alone fic. It isn’t exactly Rumbelle, more Henry and Belle bonding, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

She was broken. All the fragments, held so carefully together, hung on such high hopes, had shattered when she sent him away. She turned the dagger over and over in her hands as tears streamed down her face. She’d done what she never wanted to do: she’d controlled him in a way that she knew terrified him. She left him alone, tore them apart, and fractured any hope of any future they might have had.

 

What had she done?

 

She ran her finger over the tip, his name no longer etched into the shining silver of the blade, the power pulsing through the dagger. What if she stabbed herself? Would the power transfer to her? With that kind of power she could make it like this never happened… bring him back, beg forgiveness, and erase so many faults.

 

It was a fantasy to indulge in, not a reality to plan. She thought it over anyway, sliding her finger over the sharp and winding blade, feeling the power course through the dagger like it had pulsed under his skin and finally felt like she might understand the addiction.

 

“Grand- Belle?”

 

His voice cracked, just enough to evoke the ghost of Neal, to remind her of all the reasons Rum had been so desperate. The tears choked her up again as she realized she’d never locked the shop door.

 

“Belle?” He didn’t need to ask if she was there, her sniffling was loud enough to give her away. She shoved the dagger beneath the counter she’d been hiding behind and stood, swiping the tears from her face.

 

She fought to compose herself as she rounded the display case, but couldn’t quite make it. “Henry, what- what are you…”

 

The boy’s head fell as he saw her. No man Belle had ever met knew what to do when she cried- not her father or Gaston or the Dark One, and poor Henry was no different. He reached out a hand but brought it back right away, tangling it in his scarf. “My moms told me about what happened tonight. I thought… I wanted…”

 

The concern and confusion in his voice brought a fresh wave of tears to Belle’s eyes. She and Rum knew there had been an alternate desire when he asked for a job, but the boy had quickly become part of their small family, he’d become a part of who they were. She saw hope start to shine from Rum’s eyes again when Henry was around, and sometimes she felt as if Henry would be the only chance she might get at having something close to a child.

 

“Thank you for checking on me,” Belle managed to choke out as the tiniest of smiles attempted to form on her lips- anything to reassure him.

 

“It’s just not fair!” He blurted out angrily, hands thrusting onto the counter, rattling it. “They forgot me at that house! Did you know that? So I decided to look around. But they forgot me. This whole time I’ve been trying to help and no one wants to let me be a part of things. I keep coming up with ideas and answers and books and they still don’t get it!” He huffed; fire bubbling up and spewing out frustrations that had been building. “Why do they always forget you? Why do they always forget my Dad? They’re all out there trying to cheer my mom up for giving up Robin Hood and my other mom and Hook are doing who knows what, and look at what you just did! For all of us. For the town. For YOU and for HIM and they don’t care!” He bounced around the shop with anger, hands clenching, ready to tear it apart. “I never got to know my dad. Never. And Grandpa Charming says that its Rumplestiltskin’s fault- but it’s not. None of the good stuff would have happened without him. I wouldn’t have been born without him and all anyone does is mope or mess around with magic. I want to know about my dad! I want my moms to be happy. I want to stop worrying if someone is a villain or a hero and just have everyone try to be good people! Why can’t that happen?”

 

His rant was piece-meal, like he was rehashing old thoughts that he didn’t fully voice, but she understood it just the same. It was like watching him grow up. The anger stewing, the thoughts raging, she cried silently as he paced, knowing her words couldn’t help him now. She stepped out of the counter, into the room as he whirled on her.

 

“And you! No one cares! You run around and help everyone you can and you’re probably the best, most caring person I’ve met in my whole life and you’re sitting here, crying, all alone while my moms and the seven dwarfs are doing shots at Grannys!”

 

Belle was silent for a beat, waiting for the rant to continue, but his words started as a whisper as his fight fell away from him. “It’s like they forgot about me. We came back from Neverland and it was like they forgot. Zelena was around and no matter how many damn times I said ‘try throwing water on her’ no one even tried. Baby Neal was born and Elsa showed up and it was just… they forgot.” He sniffed and twisted his scarf in his hands. “They still think I go to school. Both my moms ask me how school was each day. How can I go to school, there’s no one there teaching! No one goes to school. I’m gone all day- here, or at the library, or exploring the mines, and no one cares!”

 

He ran to her, enveloping her in a hug, giving it as much as he needed it. She held him fiercely, not sure which of them needed the comfort most. “He was funny. Grandpa was funny. And smart. And I was just starting to get to know him. I didn’t know I wanted to know him. I just thought I wanted to know more about my dad and help my mom. But I did. I wanted to get to know Rumplestiltskin, because he’s not as evil and dark as everyone thinks. I wanted to be his Grandson. I did. I do. I’m sorry.”

 

Belle couldn’t hold back the tears as she held him close. She could barely speak, but she forced the words out with soft determination. “Me too, Henry. I’m sorry I had to…”

 

“I can fix it.”

 

His interruption was strong and quiet, with a dark tone that caught her off guard.  “What?”

 

He didn’t move from her embrace, but his arms stiffened. “I can fix it. We’re going to find the author of my book and…”

 

“Henry… No.” She shook her head and cradled the back of his skull, trying to warm the cold tone away from his voice with her hug.

 

“He has power. He has to have power. If he wrote my book he can give us all our happy endings. My moms are both working on it- and if you help…  He can make people less evil.” He looked up at her, the childlike hope and trust shining in his eyes almost too much for Belle to bear.

 

She pulled back and brushed his hair back from his face, looking in those optimistic eyes. “You can’t plan your life around people changing, Henry. I know that now.”

 

He shook his head, the truest believer refusing to believe the realities of impending adulthood. “Then I’ll change them. I’m a good person. This shop is full of things, magical things that will get them to listen to me. That I can use to make them change.”

 

Fear rose up in her heart. “Henry, you can’t.”

 

He pulled back from her arms, his anger turning to manic desperation. “I’m the truest believer! I’m the purest of heart. I can fix all of this! I just need… I just need the power for them to listen to me!” He stepped back into the middle of the room and for a minute a different face with a sharper nose and stronger jaw flashed across his and made her heart clench. “They’ll listen to me if I have power. Both of my moms have power… light and dark. Why can’t I have power, too? And use it to fix everything!” His chin wavered, eyes filling with tears for the first time. “To bring my Dad back.”

 

Belle reached out to him, her hand shaking slightly. “You can’t Henry. You can’t bring him back. Don’t you see? Don’t you see that’s what turned your grandfather so dark? There is a good man in him, but the power- it changes people.”

 

“It changed Emma,” he whispered. “She used to spend time with me.” He shook his head and looked at his shoes. “I remember what it was like in New York. Without the power she was different.”

 

His voice was broken; she could see the pain in his eyes, the hope shattering and the love cracking. For a few brief weeks he’d had hope for his future: two moms, a dad, and two sets of completely opposite grandparents. But now he felt alone, he felt betrayed, and that was when it began. She knew all too well because it was the same feeling she had felt too many times over in her father’s care, in the dungeon of the Dark Castle, and even here in the shop.

 

Her own thoughts so short a time ago had been so dark, darker than they’d ever been, but this boy, not yet a man, stood on the precipice with her, looking into a void that had no return. She at least understood those consequences. He couldn’t fathom what lay ahead. Her decision was rash, and quick. And probably the wrong one, but she had no other choice.

 

She strode over to Henry laid her hands on his shoulders. “Henry, I need your help.”

 

It had been so long since he’d heard those words; the smile bloomed on his face before he could stop it. Not a full one, but one enough to bring the boyhood back to his serious countenance. “I can help. What do you want me to do?”

 

Belle took a deep, shaky breath and spoke gravely. “This shop, our home, everywhere that your Grandfather was, is filled with magical things. Things that if used by the wrong person could hurt so many people.” She paused, trying to find the right words, the words that would set him on the path away from darkness. “You know as well as I do that people here come to get help from your grandfather more than they like to admit. He’s not here now to hand out the right spells and keep them from using the dangerous magic.” Her eyes pleaded with the boy just as much as her words did, the truth of what she was saying pouring from her soul, with the realization just as new to her as it was to Henry. “We need to do that. I need you to help me do that. I need the purest heart of the truest believer to help me protect this town.”

 

His eyes searched the shop, lip nibbling between his teeth. “I want…”

 

Belle leaned in, hands holding his shoulders tight. “There are more important things in this world than what we want, Henry. I want my husband back, but this town needed to be rid of the Dark One.” Tears choked her words for a moment, but she swallowed them and continued. “Sometimes, we have to be braver than we…” Belle took another deep breath, desperate to press on, “braver than we ever thought we could.”

 

Belle stepped back, turning away from the boy to find a tissue in the drawer of the counter. She found only one of Rumple’s handkerchiefs, and used it to pull the tears away from your eyes before crumbling it in her fist. “Will you help me, Henry?”

 

Henry cleared his tears with the backs of his hands and paced along the side counter. He ran his hands over dolls and steins, taking slow deep breaths to compose himself as Belle waited, lifting a silver pendant from a display to give him and excuse to not look at her. His words were careful. He hadn’t given up on his desires. “I want to learn magic…”

 

“I need somebody smart,” Belle stated, more sure in her words than she had been a few moments ago. “Somebody who understands that every spell comes with a price. Someone who doesn’t mind reading through pages and pages of books to find spells or to find out what an object does. I need someone who can help me figure out what all of this stuff does…” Belle took a moment, said it in her mind, and then let the words slip from her mouth, knowing it was a dangerous prospect, “…and then who can learn how to use it to help people.”

 

His head turned to the side so quickly she thought he’d hurt himself. “You’ll teach me?”

 

She held up her hands and crossed the shop to him, taking the pendant from his hand and laying it back on the counter where he’d found it. “Not at first, no. Not while you’re still angry. Not while I’m still sad. Magic feels those emotions, feeds off of them. You’ll have to prove to me that your heart is still true, still pure. But one day- one day someone will need to be in charge of all of these things-“ she gestured to the pendant and then around the room, she desperately tried not to think of the man that had collected it all, “and it won’t be me. You’ll need to know how to command them all.”

 

Henry hesitated, so she continued. “This pendant, do you know what it is?” He shook his head, bashful. “Well, neither do I. When I first met Rumplestiltskin every other minute he was yelling at me for touching something in his castle. I thought it was because he was rude and didn’t like to share,” a brief smile flickered over her face at the memory, “but it was because so many ordinary things were actually very powerful without looking like they were anything but decoration.”

 

She let her hand drift over the silver chain, her eyes clouding over. “We may have banished the Dark One tonight, but the town isn’t safe until someone- we- learn what everything in this shop and his home are and what they do. We should consider everything dangerous until we understand it.”

 

Belle took the boys hands. Was he even really her grandson anymore, she wondered? She shook the thought out of her head and looked him in the eyes. “It’s tempting to take the power and take what we think we deserve. But you’ve read that book. You know the stories. It never works, even when good intentions are the basis for the actions.”

 

Henry nodded. “I know, I just-“

 

“No. I need you with me on this.” She bit her lip and looked back at the pendant. “I can’t do this if I’m worried that you’ll repeat his mistakes. I want to share all I know about these men that can’t be in your life right now, but not if I’m afraid you’ll lie to me, too. Remember your father, Henry. Remember the boy who begged the Dark One to come to a land without magic.” Tears welled in her eyes. “That’s what I did. I remembered everything I knew about that boy when I told Rumplestiltskin to leave. The power corrupted him, it broke him into pieces of the man he was. Your father understood that, and you need to remember that.”

 

Henry looked around the room, his eyes falling on all the magical objects. “How can we help if we don’t have power?”

 

A small smile bloomed on her face. “The rest of us do it all the time. I don’t actually have magic, I can simply say a few spells. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring me. But I’ve always tried to be brave, and do what I thought was right. That’s how you change the world without magical powers. You use your knowledge, and it gives you the power to make good decisions.”

 

She could see the confusion behind his eyes, could see how his words about searching for the author started to make him doubt, how everything swirled into a dark vortex of hurt and confusion. “We can teach this town together, don’t you think?” Belle was hopeful, searching his face for any sign of hope. When his eyes met hers, there was just a tiny glimmer of light in them, but it was slowly growing.

 

“Yeah,” he whispered, “I think we can.”


End file.
